Provinciale Statenverkiezingen 2023

How do political campaigns target voters?

Methodology

In collaboration with Who Targets Me, we monitored over 1000 Dutch political advertisers during the 2023 Provinciale Statenverkiezingen (Provincial elections) to better understand how campaigns use different targeting methods made available by Meta. To do this, we used data from the Meta Ad Library, using the new ‘Audience’ data which gives some detail on how pages target their ads.

To better understand the regional election, we kept only advertisers who:

  1. Advertised in the last 7 days (March 4th - March 10th 2023)
  2. Advertised in the last 30 days (February 9th - March 10th 2023)

Note: Meta only provides 7, 30 and 90 days windows for the targeting data in their Ad Library. Meta’s data also lags by a few days. We will update this report as soon as new data is available.

Topline Statistics

Meta

February 9th - March 10th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend €466,191 and ran 5091 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

CDA

34


1. CDA Noord-Holland (€13,072)
2. CDA Limburg (€7,529)
3. CDA Zuid-Holland (€6,532)

629

€69,438

PvdA

37


1. Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) (€35,159)
2. PvdA Noord Holland (€7,271)
3. PvdA Zuid-Holland (€5,909)

541

€67,328

GroenLinks

21


1. GroenLinks (€57,242)
2. GroenLinks Brabant (€2,009)
3. GroenLinks Zuid-Holland (€1,415)

265

€64,396

SP

12


1. SP (€48,916)
2. Lilian Marijnissen (€4,084)
3. SP Noord-Brabant (€565)

341

€54,465

VVD

45


1. VVD (€11,220)
2. Limburgse VVD (€7,541)
3. VVD Flevoland (€2,505)

739

€35,493

Volt Nederland

4


1. Volt Nederland (€23,726)
2. Volt Noord-Holland (€2,851)
3. Volt Brabant (€2,075)

799

€29,391

FvD

4


1. Forum voor Democratie -FVD (€28,076)
2. Wybren van Haga (€778)
3. Thierry Baudet (€182)

49

€29,136

BBB

7


1. BBB BoerBurgerBeweging (€22,882)
2. BBB Boerburgerbeweging Noord-Holland (€866)
3. BBB Boerburgerbeweging Zeeland (€499)

85

€24,647

PvdD

14


1. Partij voor de Dieren (€14,716)
2. Partij voor de Dieren Noord-Holland (€1,646)
3. Partij voor de Dieren Rijnland (€1,037)

256

€20,880

D66

21


1. D66 Noord-Holland (€3,015)
2. D66 Zuid-Holland (€1,780)
3. D66 (€1,729)

218

€16,178

BVNL

7


1. Belang van Nederland - BVNL (€13,954)
2. BVNL Gelderland (€212)
3. BVNL-Haarlemmermeer (€207)

72

€14,801

Ja21

4


1. Ja21 (€7,922)
2. JA21 Drenthe (€141)
3. JA21 Limburg (€100)

301

€8,263

PVV

10


1. Geert Wilders (€4,961)
2. PVVLimburg (€748)
3. PVV Fryslan (€378)

60

€7,053

ChristenUnie

18


1. ChristenUnie Flevoland (€2,376)
2. ChristenUnie (€833)
3. ChristenUnie Fryslân (€817)

184

€6,911

50PLUS

5


1. 50PLUSpartij (€4,714)
2. 50PLUSFlevoland (€979)
3. 50PLUS-Overijssel (€557)

85

€6,585

DENK

3


1. DENK (€4,559)
2. Mahmut Sungur DENK (€703)
3. Ekrem Selimspahic (€143)

380

€5,405

SGP

5


1. SGP (€1,709)
2. SGP Zeeland (€978)
3. SGP provincie Gelderland (€731)

59

€3,618

Alliantie

2


1. Henriette van Hedel - Alliantie (€1,997)
2. Alliantie (€206)

28

€2,203

March 4th - March 10th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend €270,429 and ran 3770 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

CDA

31


1. CDA Noord-Holland (€10,897)
2. CDA Limburg (€7,117)
3. CDA Zuid-Holland (€6,532)

596

€59,334

PvdA

33


1. Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) (€18,330)
2. PvdA Brabant (€3,668)
3. PvdA Zuid-Holland (€3,335)

441

€37,216

GroenLinks

18


1. GroenLinks (€29,588)
2. GroenLinks Zuid-Holland (€1,415)
3. GroenLinks Brabant (€1,265)

211

€35,195

VVD

38


1. VVD (€6,421)
2. Limburgse VVD (€5,977)
3. VVD Brabant (€1,666)

632

€24,071

PvdD

13


1. Partij voor de Dieren (€11,775)
2. Partij voor de Dieren Noord-Holland (€842)
3. Partij voor de Dieren Zuid-Holland (€756)

183

€15,796

FvD

3


1. Forum voor Democratie -FVD (€15,164)
2. Thierry Baudet (€182)
3. Wybren van Haga (€169)

39

€15,515

Volt Nederland

4


1. Volt Nederland (€9,962)
2. Volt Noord-Holland (€2,851)
3. Volt Brabant (€1,946)

601

€15,498

SP

10


1. SP (€12,112)
2. Lilian Marijnissen (€1,223)
3. SP Noord-Brabant (€308)

162

€14,343

BVNL

7


1. Belang van Nederland - BVNL (€11,002)
2. BVNL Gelderland (€196)
3. Arjan de Kok - BVNL (€110)

60

€11,708

D66

21


1. D66 Noord-Holland (€2,021)
2. D66 Zuid-Holland (€1,338)
3. D66 Provincie Utrecht (€1,177)

118

€11,549

BBB

7


1. BBB BoerBurgerBeweging (€8,396)
2. BBB Boerburgerbeweging Noord-Holland (€866)
3. BBB Boerburgerbeweging Zeeland (€127)

46

€9,789

Ja21

4


1. Ja21 (€4,221)
2. JA21 Drenthe (€141)
3. JA21 Limburg (€100)

152

€4,562

50PLUS

5


1. 50PLUSpartij (€3,178)
2. 50PLUSFlevoland (€722)
3. 50PLUS-Overijssel (€141)

56

€4,252

ChristenUnie

17


1. ChristenUnie Flevoland (€1,198)
2. ChristenUnie (€833)
3. ChristenUnie Provincie Utrecht (€394)

127

€4,167

DENK

3


1. DENK (€2,153)
2. Mahmut Sungur DENK (€390)
3. Ekrem Selimspahic (€143)

246

€2,686

SGP

4


1. SGP (€1,223)
2. SGP Zeeland (€683)
3. SGP provincie Gelderland (€140)

44

€2,146

PVV

7


1. Geert Wilders (€728)
2. PVVLimburg (€463)
3. PVV Fryslan (€189)

37

€1,831

Alliantie

2


1. Henriette van Hedel - Alliantie (€601)
2. Alliantie (€170)

19

€771

Google

For Google platforms, data accessed via the Google Transparency Report provides exact spending on how much money was spent by parties in last 30 days. The table below shows spending in the timerange between February 11th to March 13th 2023.

Number of Ads Top Spenders Total Spend

FvD

20


1. Forum voor Democratie (€64,750)

€64,750

GroenLinks

126


1. GroenLinks (€52,700)
2. Stichting GroenLinks in de EU (€100)

€52,800

Volt Nederland

988


1. Volt Nederland (€36,250)

€36,250

D66

134


1. D66 (€33,900)

€33,900

CDA

177


1. Christen Democratisch Appèl (€18,400)
2. Stichting statenfractie CDA Gelderland (€8,300)
3. CDA Doetinchem (€50)

€26,750

SP

39


1. SP (Socialistische Partij) (€24,450)

€24,450

BBB

145


1. Marc-Michel Strijker (€22,600)

€22,600

VVD

100


1. VVD (€12,800)
2. Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (€1,800)

€14,600

PvdA

20


1. Partij van de Arbeid (€10,350)

€10,350

JA21

20


1. Conservatieve Liberalen (€8,450)

€8,450

DENK

24


1. Politieke beweging DENK (€5,850)

€5,850

50PLUS

140


1. Stichting fractieondersteuning 50plus Flevoland (€3,900)
2. VLG (€1,900)

€5,800

ChristenUnie

213


1. ChristenUnie (€1,500)

€1,500

BVNL

10


1. Belang Van Nederland (€1,200)

€1,200

Spending per Targeting Criteria

How much did campaigns spend on different targeting methods?

February 9th - March 10th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Overall

By Party

March 4th - March 10th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Overall

By Party

Top Targeted Audiences

Here, we show the top targeted audiences for each party (ranked by amount of Euro spend). Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”.

February 9th - March 10th 2023 (Last 30 days)

March 4th - March 10th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Top Contested Audiences

Here, we show the top most contested audiences, i.e. where all parties have spent considerable amounts of money competing to reach voters with the same interests. Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”. In each row on the right hand side, you can see how much in total was spend on that specific target audience.

February 9th - March 10th 2023 (Last 30 days)

March 4th - March 10th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Age Targeting

February 9th - March 10th 2023 (Last 30 days)

March 4th - March 10th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Gender Targeting

February 9th - March 10th 2023 (Last 30 days)

March 4th - March 10th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Education Targeting

February 9th - March 10th 2023 (Last 30 days)

March 4th - March 10th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Job Targeting

February 9th - March 10th 2023 (Last 30 days)

March 4th - March 10th 2023 (Last 7 days)

ZIP Code Targeting

The following maps show ZIP code targeting for a few parties that spend a lot on this kind of targeting method. It’s important to note that the spending here “overlaps”, i.e. one cannot sum up across all different ZIP codes as some targeted ZIP codes have a shared budget.

February 9th - March 10th 2023 (Last 30 days)

VVD

CDA

ChristenUnie